Facilitator First Aid

[Linda, please explain what the purpose of this session was at this place]

Participant we shall call “Bob” does not want to engage in the workshop. He was a key member of the project team. Bob asks continually asks questions totally unrelated to workshop.

Linda informs Bob privately that his questions are disruptive at the break. Suggests that he write his questions down. Bob agrees.

Bob continues to ask questions and refuses to participate in exercises. This is tolerated by the rest of the group.

Linda decides to try Appreciative Inquiry. Bob participates and gives his appreciation. During another participants appreciation he asks another question. Linda suggests that his question is better asked at another time. Bob starts to “get noisy” and grumble.

Ellen offered that the participant was screaming for attention and that he was challenging the moderator’s authority.

Rachel suggested giving the “Bob” something to do such as scribe. This would give him something important to do and fulfill his need for attention.

Ellen suggested Linda use an intervention model one-on-one discussed in the Skilled Facilitator by Schwartz.

1. State specific behaviors “I noticed that….”
2. Pause
3. Tell Bob authentically your inference about his behavior.
4. Ask Bob if your inferences are correct.

Boris suggested throwing it back to the group. “I have noticed that Bob has asked many questions not related to the workshop. What should we do?” Ellen felt that this was dangerous. Linda felt that the manager and the group were afraid of Bob and that this may not have worked.

Gerhart suggested asking Bob in front of the group if the questions were relevant.

Siegi stated that many groups rely on the facilitator to solve these problems. Ellen asked what ground rules were set. Linda said no rules were set and manager said that everyone should be able to say whatever they wanted. Manager felt that there would be no safety issues.

Gerhart suggested talking to manager at break.

Mauri suggested setting up affinity groups with and without Bob.

Rachel – tracking time lost by questions and then bringing back to the group.

Gerhart suggested bringing it to HR. John felt that this may involve legal issues.

John – said that Linda was very congruent (Satir Model). He also liked Schwartz’s model. John also brought up MBTI and indicated that NTs only like NT.

John – suggested asking Bob “What would be a better use of his time? and giving him permission to leave if he felt a need to”

Ellen – prework very important. Linda said that she often does not have a lot of chance to do that.

Mauri would like to know the history of retrospectives. Was Norm Kerth’s book the kickoff book?

John said that the term was coined by Wayne and Eileen Strider in the late 90s. He will ask Eileen in a couple of weeks when you talks to her about the date.

Linda says the idea of retrospectives goes way back.

John said that many of these things were done in the 1960s. He will follow up with Jerry Weinberg.

Norm Kerth is one of the few who deals with human issues.

Tim said British Petroleum may have used the term in the late 80s.

Ellen recalled that Interaction Reviews were used from the military.

List server lists types of retrospectives.

John suggested talking to gathering participants who attended prior years.

Facilitated a group where the goal was to define responsibilities within 45 minutes. Climate was good. Team agreed how they will work together in the future. Group open to reorganizing. Team wrote up cards on how they saw their responsibilities in the future.

In a following workshop, those responsibilities have to be further detailed. What is the best approach?

John asked if there was a way to debrief of the first workshop.

John suggested using sculpting as described by Virginia Satir. Ellen and Linda indicated that this is a very powerful technique and should be used with caution. Gerhart used a modified version of sculpting and it was successful.

Gerhart suggested Varga von kibed as a possible source of material

Ellen/Tim suggested playing our scenarios role playing to define responsibilities. Using cards and pass them from one individual to another.

Debra said it could be approach by doing a retrospective of their experiences.

Ellen suggested using Role Pointers.

Cristina suggested doing an exercise to identify expectations and the values that they people think they bring to the table.

Debra said people could start by identifying what is NOT in their job.

Debra said that at Intel, a similar problem was resolved by identifying deliverables.

John – Does anyone ask what people’s preferences may be?

first_aid_clinic.pdf